Unicorns, West and East

Are All Mythic Creatures Scary?

While many mythic creatures are man-eating monsters or evil spirits, others, like unicorns, are powerful and peaceful. Both the pearly white unicorn of European lore and the benevolent Asian unicorn avoid contact with humans, preferring to remain unseen. When humans do encounter unicorns, the creatures cause them no harm, a favor that is not always returned. Indeed, countless stories tell of humans hunting European unicorns and luring them into traps.

Mythic Unicorns

In modern fairy tales and other stories, the mythic unicorn looks like a white horse with a single long horn on its head. But in older stories, this fantastic creature had a short, colored horn and the body of a goat.

European Unicorn

Once upon a time, a hunter in the forest saw a brilliant white unicorn in the distance, emerging from a river and gleaming like the moon. Enchanted by the sight, the hunter called together his friends and gave chase. But the unicorn knew that men could never catch him, so he playfully waited for the hunters to draw close before bounding out of view. After a while, the unicorn came to a stop in front of a beautiful young maiden sitting under a tree. She reached out, combed his curling mane and rubbed his horn until he lay his head in her lap. But it was a trap! Looking up at the maiden, the unicorn saw her brown eyes were filled with tears and realized her deceit too late--the dogs and men suddenly seized him and carried him away. Afterward, the maiden remained in the woods, despondent. As she leaned down to wash away her tears in the stream, a movement in the distance caught her eye: She couldn't be sure, but she thought it was the shining horn of a unicorn disappearing into the night.

--Adapted from medieval European folktales; Greek authors told similar stories over 2,000 years ago.

An Ancient Tale

You may have heard that the one-horned unicorn is so magical that its horn can counteract poisons, and it is so elusive that no person can catch it. But did you know these unicorn stories began in ancient Greece? More than 2,000 years ago, Greek travelers told tales of unicorns living in far-off lands. As the fabulous accounts spread around the Western world, few people questioned that unicorns actually existed. Indeed, in about 300 BC, scholars translating the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek concluded that the Hebrew term re'em referred to a unicorn. Even early naturalists considered the unicorn to be a living animal: Several ancient catalogues of animals of the world include unicorns and describe them as solitary beasts that often battle lions and elephants.

Unicorn illustration from Topsell, rare book collection
American Museum of Natural History Library

At a Glance: European Unicorn

In stories, unicorns live deep in the forest and are rarely seen by people.

White coat--but some early authors and artists described it as yellowish red, or even brown.

Usually a horse's body, often with cloven hooves like a goat; sometimes the entire body looks like a goat's.

Tail of a lion--but some descriptions include the tail of a horse, goat, or boar.

The Christian Unicorn

Art historians have long considered the unicorn to be a symbol for Christ, a link seen most clearly in the story of a maiden capturing a unicorn (told above). For instance, the unicorn's placing his head in the lap of the young maiden, or virgin, recalls baby Jesus lying in the lap of the Virgin Mary. In other stories and artworks, the unicorn dips its horn into poisoned water to purify it for the other animals to drink, a reference to the story of Christ's sacrifice to cleanse the sins of mankind.

So They Say

"There are wild elephants and plenty of unicorns, which are scarcely smaller than elephants. They have the hair of a buffalo and feet like an elephant's. They have a single large, black horn in the middle of the forehead... They have a head like a wild boar's and always carry it stooped towards the ground. They spend their time by preference wallowing in mud and slime. They are very ugly brutes to look at. They are not at all such as we describe them when we relate that they let themselves be captured by virgins."

Royal Respect

Even today, unicorns remain objects of wonder and beauty, often appearing as characters in popular movies and books. But they can also symbolize majesty and power. Strong and powerful unicorns are featured on the Royal Arms of both Scotland and the United Kingdom.

Natural History Book

In 1551, Swiss naturalist Konrad Gesner wrote Historiae Animalium, a book describing all of the animals that he thought lived on Earth. This 1620 edition includes a description of a unicorn, presumably based on the accounts of travelers to far-off lands.

Horn in Case

The Monastery of Saint Mary in Guadalupe, Spain, gave an African white rhinoceros horn to a dying Pope Gregory XIV in 1590. Like unicorn horns, rhinoceros horns were thought to have magical, curative properties. Though the tip of the horn was cut off and administered to the Pope, it proved ineffective and he died shortly thereafter.

Coin

James III, King of Scotland from 1460 to 1488, issued several coins that featured unicorns.

Is This a Unicorn Horn?

No, but it certainly looks like one. This enormous "horn" is the tusk of a male narwhal, a kind of Arctic whale. Before Europeans became familiar with these tusks, unicorns were often described as having horns in a variety of sizes, shapes and colors. But in the Middle Ages, Danish sailors and other merchants from the North brought narwhal tusks to European markets, where buyers considered them to be valuable, ma